Crush crushed in new ratings

Published 12:05 am, Sunday, July 24, 2011

Is the region's crush on "The Crush" fading? New ratings from Arbitron, the media and marketing research company, suggest so.

The radio station, WQSH, or 105.7 FM, went on the air in January and jumped out to a 4.4 overall audience share in the winter ratings period, ranking it seventh in the market.

But in the newly released spring ratings, The Crush's audience share was cut in half to 2.2 (that's the average percentage of radios tuned to the station) and fell to 15 in the ranking.

The region's most popular station? That would be country station WGNA (107.7 FM), with an 8.1 share, followed by talk station WGY (810 AM, 103.1 FM), which scored a 7.3 share.

Surely, you jest? No

Census data show that the value of permits for new residential construction in the city of Troy jumped in 2010 by an eye-popping 1,518 percent -- even though the city issued fewer permits than in 2009.

The junior senator from New York recently wrote to China's ambassador to the United States to complain about China's domination of the market for so-called "rare earth" elements," which are special minerals used in many high-tech consumer and defense industry products as well as clean-energy technologies.

More than 95 percent of the world's supply of rare earths is located in China, and the World Trade Organization recently ruled that China has been violating international rules by restricting exports.

In a letter addressed to "Your Excellency," Gillibrand wrote Ambassador Zhang Yesui to say that she was upset with China's actions.

"This is deeply disappointing and harmful to the interests of both of our countries, as well as the global community at large," she wrote